Thursday, July 28, 2011

.. Im glad to see the evening news reading my blog - and keeping up tp date with local issues,,,

however, to put the record straight, I was not the one who named Cllr Morris as a Charlatan of the highest order' (not to say i dont agree with some of the comments) this in fact came from an evening news reader online,,

A packed audience last night at meadowbank stadium, with local resident from Edinburgh East - fighting against the privitasation of council services..

Over 80 local residents attended this event, with the local lib dem Cllr Peacock, Cllr Cammy Day representing the Labour group - and no show from the SNP - despite repeated requests from the organisers, and a personal visit to Kenny MacAskills office - asking for Anyone from SNP to attend, they failed to attend, yet again.

Speakers from Black Triangle campaign group, spoke out on thier fears on local cuts to services - given the recent Care and Support fiasco, and CONDEM cuts in welfare benefits.. saying many disabled people are frightened to leave their home,,or unable to!

Privatisation of up to 4000 jobs, services run by private companies with no base in edinburgh, no democratic control, lack of information provided to elected members.. lack of transparency to trade unions - all comments made by the 80 strong audience.

UNISON, also in attendance - commented on their surprise at the speed of the process, and lack of democratic control - highlighting the criminal convictions and lack of transparency in the bidding process of some of the companies bidding... which not all elected members were advised of

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Todays evening news informed us that the LIB DEM's Forth Councillor -Elaine Morris - recently reported to standards commission for releasing confidential papers in public - and likely due to be struck off.. has swung her support and defected to the SNP (not the first forth Councillor to do this)

In the run up to election, its not unknown of Councillors to Jump Ship in the hope of being re elected.

Cllr Morris only last month voted for the £220 Million pound trams, but today says its bad news...

She added that the Lib Dems let down parents in the school closures,, but voted through every single one!!

evenings news comment ;

If she isn't willing to resign her seat and stand in a by-election the SNP should refuse to allow her into the party.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Speaking ahead of the announcement on the future of Scotland’s air bases, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland Ann McKechin MP said:

"The resilience, spirit and energy shown by both campaigns at Leuchars and Lossiemouth over the last nine long months has been remarkable.

"From start to finish the defence review has been conducted at reckless speed with George Osborne in the driving seat, fuelled by his desire to cut faster and deeper than is safe.

"After decades of loyal service to the RAF, the local communities of Leuchars and Lossiemouth are hugely dependent on the bases and I fear the consequences will be catastrophic if either of the bases is allowed to close.

"There has been much speculation about what would happen if the bases were to close, but these plans appear to be years not months away from implementation.

"If any Scottish base is to close then we must have a clear undertaking from the UK government that these communities will be treated fairly and an immediate action plan is put in place to support people locally.

"After years of loyal service to this county it would be a gross betrayal for the Tory-led government to now abandon these proud RAF communities."

"The fact is it is still the SNP’s long-term goal to introduce a local income tax that will hammer hard-pressed families to the tune of £500 per year.

"The SNP claim that all ‘information is already in the public domain’ is utter nonsense. It isn’t. We need 100 per cent public disclosure of these secret SNP files so everybody knows exactly how much more Alex Salmond wants to tax every Scottish family already feeling the squeeze.

"We need to know exactly how much this cover-up campaign has cost hard-pressed taxpayers.

"If the SNP have nothing to hide then they should have problem immediately publishing all documents on the Scottish government website for all to see.

"Alex Salmond should not only apologise to for misleading the Scottish public about his plans to hike up tax bills but he should make sure the SNP pay back every penny of public money spent on this party political cynical cover-up campaign."

Saturday, June 25, 2011

After 3.5 years of the Lib Dem/SNP council making a balls up of managing the Tram Project for Edinburgh.. Labour has called for a full enquiry into the continued mistakes and mismanagement fron this Administration

last night (Friday) seen the annual General Meeting of the Edinburgh Tenants Federation..

a very good turn out from tenants reps from across the city - and some interesting constitutional motions discussed, won and defeated - showing ETF as lively as ever.

The AGM heard from convenor Betty Stevenson, and many of the ETF executive on key issues, Stair Cleaning, Stair Inspections, Anti Social Behaviour and of course - continued investment in affordable housing.

ETF this year has won many awards for their tenant support and advice over the years, in particluar for their Mental Health Awareness work - which is highly commended,,

The AGM was an enjoyable evening - sadly I had to leave before the Music and drinks started flowing,,,

As the only councillor who made an effort to attend - I look forward to the continued support with Edinburgh Tenants Federation and all of its members.

Along With Malcolm Chisholm MSP and Cllr Lesley Hinds - I attended the recent local activists social history groups launch of the 'Never Give up' click here for NEN Story

This production , and the background to the report, is fantastic- I was so pleased to see such a high quality, with extensive content of the History of activism in Greater Pilton/North Edinburgh.

The DVD shows real storys of local activists fights - like the 2'and 6 that was to be put on rents many years ago! - kickstarting a campaign - no rent rise! Edinburgh currently has the highest rents in all of Scotland!

Local Activists, Anna Hutchison, Brian Eddington, Brain Robertson, Roberta Blaike introduced their report and DVD - introduced by Alex Wood, and our very own Dave Pickering. well kent face Mae Shaw welcomed the report, and the funding from this organisation - and will now be taking this to the next stage! The work was supported by the local CLD officers

This shows that North Edinburgh has real passion for its community, despite recent school closures, and loss of over £1million of funding - cut by the SNP/Lieb Dem council here in Edinburgh,,, I hope to see their campaining in the coming local council elections!

Well done to all those involved - I am very impressed with this report - and support activists to 'Never Give up'!!

A surprisingly good turn out at the Forth Neighbourhood PartnershipPublic Meeting at Telford College last night.

Local groups and organisations including Community Renewal, Libraries,Granton Churches and North Edinburgh Arts took advantage of the Marketarea to set out information stalls and showcase the range of servicesavailable in the ward.

The aim of the meeting was to update on the regeneration projects inthe Forth Ward and the FNP team had pulled all the stops out to ensurethat a good selection of representatives from City Development, Landowners and Housing Associations were in attendance to do just that.....

This was a well attended meeting – just disgraceful that no opportunity was given to the community, to ask public questions, in what is supposedly a ‘Public Meeting’. After being informed by the Lothian Health representative, that the reent reports of the long awaited Healthcare Partnership Centre have some truthm in that it may be postponed, redued in size – or indeed shelved (as reported in the evening news) !!!No opportunity to ask any questions about this or the verly slow, to nil pace of investment in the Granton Waterfront.

If Neighbourhood Partnerships are to be successful, we need to be open and transparent, and not be shy or frightened to face the public, and respond to them !

I can only hope the next ‘Public Meeting’ whenever it may be – will have the opportunity for questions to be asked, and answered!

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Met some pupils from St Augustines RC High School today - lots of questions about what we do, why we do it etc... they enjoyed a tour of the Council Chambers, some discussion - and some fine tea & cakes!

good to see the next generation of voters keen to see and hear (and grill) their elected members!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

!

Further to my last blog, the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council faced a motion of no confidence today at Full Council over The Gathering, holding on by only 29 votes to 26! The QUALITY and CREDIBILITY of their oral evidence to a Parliamentary Committee had been called into question and a large number of councillors remained unsatisifed with the responses provided and lack of fulsome apology today by Dawe and Cardownie.

More revelations in the press this morning, before this afternoon's vote:-

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Clegg told he's 'sold out' by students

Last week Nick Clegg gave an audience to a group of students who are angry at his about-turn on tuition fees. It may have been overlooked at the time - not least because Danny Alexander was busy sacking a spokesperson live on air - but it's worth watching

Sunday, February 13, 2011

I was back on the case of the LibDem/SNP approach to the Fairer ?? Scotland Fund (FSF) at Council again this month!

As I reported before, the centralising of FSF means that local Neighbourhood Partnerships - ie local people! no longer have a formal role into important funding decisions in their local communities.

I was pleased to welcome local residents as well as community representatives from the North Edinburgh News (NEN) who made a great case for continuing funding for the NEN as part of a deputation to Council; watched on from the public gallery by some of our young people!

After hearing from the deputations I seconded the Labour Group Amendment rejecting the LibDem/SNP third party grant proposals and calling for a further report next month. In fact, had the opposition Labour Budget got through there would have been sufficient funding for all third party grants and FSF activities!!

The NEN already had massive funding cuts a couple of years ago but staff took a pay cut and a fantastic job has been done to generate advertising revenue from local organisations, BUT grant fundingneeded to be secured as well to keep the paper going!The paper is a great way for elected representatives from all parties to keep in touch with local people and a valuable source of local information and what's happening in our patch. Its closure will be a major loss for our community! Unbelievably, despite that... I was the only Forth Ward Councillor to oppose the funding cut. Says it all!

Nick Clegg and David Cameron promised to rebuild the military covenant and improve pay and conditions....???

Last week, the government announced £250 million in cuts to Armed Forces Personnel Allowances, which will reportedly lead to an average £1,400 cut in the income of every member of the Armed Forces. From 1 May 2011, they’ll be cutting something from everything; from the Day Subsistence allowance to the School Children’s Visits allowance. Nothing remains untouched!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Further to my last posting....Maybe less than rock-bottom in Scotland. According to a poll today, support for the Liberal Democrats in Scotland has fallen by more than half since the last Holyrood elections! The party’s public opinion ratings have fallen by five percentage points over the last five months. This follows all their broken promises on manifesto commitments like tuition fees and VAT.

The LibDems’ five-percentage-point fall to a tiny 7% in Scotland, is also found in the regional list vote comparison with last August. Labour are well in the lead and the main beneficiaries.

However, I’ll continue working hard to put across Labour’s message locally and fight for local residents and businesses.

Monday, December 27, 2010

It has been a busy 2010 in Forth! Alongside all of my Council duties and weekly surgeries, I've been campaigning on a whole host of local matters, including,

·promoting the successful Forth Community Festival

·fighting the corner of voluntary groups facing an uncertain future due to budget cuts

·pressing the case for affordable housing in the city

·tackling the LIbDem/SNP Council on their budget CONsultation

·highlighting the work of Edinburgh Tenants' Federation

·advising staff and students at Telford College

·demanding and achieving action on issues from Bangholm to Craigroyston

·awarding grants to worthwhile local projects as Neighbourhood Partnership Convener

·helping save Granton Gas Tower from demolition...

just a few of the things in which I've been involved!

Next year I'll keep up the pressure on the LibDem/SNP Council Administration to deliver a fair deal for Forth locally and lets hope for a change in government at Holyrood in May which will deliver for us.

I would like to wish all my constituents a very happy New Year and all the best for 2011!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

I was pleased to put forward an amendment at Full Council this month,,,looking for urgent discussions in relation to Fairer Scotland Funding.

The removal of the decision making authority from our local area to central officers goes against community planning and accountability. I tackled the LibDem/SNP Council on the lack of progress and clarity and the misleading timetables given to local projects ad to elected members.

Unfortunately while I won the support of the Green Group, the Forth community was let down by the other parties who voted ahgainst this course of action.. I will keep fighting to ensure future funding is properly discussed and that our area continues to be a priority investment for anti poverty funding and is NOT ignored by the LibDem/SNP Administration and their Unfair approach.

City of Edinburgh Council

Labour Amendment

Full Council Meeting

16th December 2010

Item 8.4 Transition from Fairer Scotland Funding

Recommendations 6.1

Delete recommendation ii and insert:

1 Council notes with concern the lack of progress and clarity provided to voluntary sector groups in the transition process from receipt of Fairer Scotland Funding throughout the city.

2 Council further notes that the removal of decision making authority from democratically elected local neighbourhood partnership boards, to central officer groups is not in the spirit of local community participation /planning.

3 Council further notes concerns about misleading timetables provided to funded projects on the timescales for investment/disinvestment.

4 Council deplores the broken promise to hold proper and detailed briefing and the additional bureaucracy requiring information in triplicate with an unrealistic deadline.

Delete v and vi and insert:

Council therefore instructs that:

1 Urgent/ Proper discussions between departments and individual projects be held to look at potential future funding.

2 Projects highlighted for disinvestment be brought to January’s Policy and Strategy committee.

3 Areas of multiple deprivation continue to be a priority investment for anti poverty funding

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

a better economy for alla society that values community and familieschange how goverment workschange foreign policy - based on values! not alliancesa new politics.. for the countrya living wage for all...

a new generation has taken charge of labouroptmistic about our countyoptimistic about our worldoptyimisitc about the power of politics

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Labour party members and affiliates, elected our party leader, to take on the CON DEM Coalition yesterday.

With a close run race between the two Miliband brothers, im pleased we now have a result, and a great leader and that Ed Miliband will lead our party to success, I for one will be fully behind our new leader!

"Today a new generation has stepped forward to change our party. We are united in our mission to transform Labour so that, once again, we stand up for the hardworking majority who play by the rules and want a less divided and more prosperous Britain. I know we have a lot of work to do. The journey starts today."

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

I have been keen to push forward our local community festival - showing the rest of the city - that North Edinburgh is a lively and great place to be! The Forth Neighbourhood Partnership, along with Pilton Community Health Project, Telford College, National Grid and EMERGE + many others have planned a great event for this weekend...Good discussions today in finalising the plans for the Forth Community Festival - to be held at ForthQuarter Park this saturday 25 September 2010, from 12-4 more info here

Lets hope the sun shines for another year of fun, bringing all the local agencies and community together!

More complaints today fom local comunity representatives about the increase in fly tipping - as a direct result of the SNP/Lib Dem cuts, in abandoning free special uplifts! Now your welcome message is 'get you card ready to pay' when you call for an uplift

someone needs to remind them - it was your SNP/LIb Dem decision - now deal with the problem, not just blame officers!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

you may have heard the recent shambles of the SNP/LIb Dems pathetic attempt at pretending to listen to the voters in a budget CONsultation! You can read more about this on Cllr Andrew Burns blog click here

The opportunity for people in the Forth and Inverleith ward is on Tuesday 5th October - I hope you can make it along - and let the Lib Dem /SNP shambles know your thoughts!!

The meeting is at Drylaw Parish Church - Groathill Road North map here at 7pm sharp!

Well as anticipated – the craigroyston school was burnt out as had been predicted! This school lay empty for a year and the Council took little action to speed things up!While the community centre is a great loss to the community, at least the site is now safe… plans for new 21century homes are progessing though the planning stages. Sadly current plans will mean the complete loss of the playing fields at ferry road - let me know what you think about that?

MMC 10th anniversary

I was delighted to attend the 10th anniversary of Muirhouse Millennium Centre. Many old and new faces came along, and spoke of the success of the centre and some of and some of its struggles, including a few old stories! Well done to the board

Granton/Royston residents association

A fun day was had by all at the event organised by Mitie to celebrate the end of the Councils kitchen and bathroom replacement programme in Granton Medway/Crescent. In addition many young people had the opportunity to train with Port of Leith Housings TOIL Project, and I am very pleased that Mitie have now taken them on permanently!The tenants and residents have put up with some inconvenience during the process, but with little concerns raised!

Victoria Park/Bangholm

I have had many discussions with council officers on what needs done to make Victoria Park a safer and more enjoyable park for everyone to enjoy. Increased police profile, youth streetwork teams, new lighting etc should help.At Bangholm its a disgrace we expect schoolchildren to take PE lessons in a park full of dogdirt.. I have demanded this and many other issues be acted upon now!

FSF Funding

Many local projects funding is under threat by the new allocation process set in place by the Lib Dem /SNP Council.

I have had meetings with the Forth Voluntary sector and other elected members to look at the best way forward to ensure we can continue to provide local services to the Forth Community.

Further discussions in September will inform what happens next – community groups should be aware that quite severe cuts from this council, may be coming!Please get in touch if this is an issue that concerns you.

New Telford Student Accomodation

The new accommodation on the corner of West Granton Road/Waterfont Avenue is now open. This provides student accommodation all year round – go and have a look! Excellent local accommodation for students.

Community Festival

This excellent event is due to take place on Saturday 25th September 12-4, at Forth Quarter Park behind telford college – the event, supported by the local neighbourhood partnership – is free, and offers fun and games for all the family – please support this event and come along

Saturday, July 17, 2010

I had to copy and past my leaders blog posting here - click here regarding the investment, I mean dismal lack of investment from our SNP government in any school building programme for Scotlands Capital City.

Against a backdrop of sound investment, creating many many new schools and community resources undera Labour led administration - not a penny has gone out under this SNP led administration!

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

ELECTION TIME

On a lighter, but serious note - its now Election Time, our current and Future Prime Minister Gordown Brown, announcing the election to be on Thursday 6th May 2010, so we have 4 weeks to ensure Labour continues to invest in public services in the future, reduces the debt and created 100,000 new skilled jobs in the UK.

This election is about wether you want a Labour Government, or The Tories back?!

Sorry ive been busy locally to update my blog,,, - but its time to blogon!

Whats been happening...

Well 2 schools closed affecting Forth Ward, (Royston and Fort) more LIB DEM / SNP cuts to schools, youth clubs and older peoples centres.. all slashed by your friendly SNP and Lib Dim Council.. but even better... your LIB DEM Councillor managed to stash £2 million of your money in the bank for her rainy day fund.. North Ediinburghs rainy day happened when the SNP and LIB FIB DEMS took over Edinburgh - and its been downhill since then!

£84 million was found to support developing Leith into the future, and good on Leith - but wheres the investment in Forth,,, gone - like the trams!!

We hear that the back tracking SNP and Liberals have at last realised the stupidity of their proposals to freeze applications for Direct Payments - maybe they have some compassion after all?.. but...

What about all those who were told to wait until the tender was awarded to see if their existing provider had kept the contract? They haven't yet (or have only just) applied for a Direct Payment - are they to remain frozen? And - the rate of the Direct Payment will be all important ... if it's to be at the new contract rate, then that's going to be very, very different from the current rate (see paragraph 2.6 here).And one very important point needs to be remembered - if it wasn't for "our weird 25% rule" and the "student stunt" inflicted on the poor Finance and Resources Committee on the 27th October, this whole policy would have been approved there and then. Current Direct Payment applications would now be frozen - full stop.The whole sorry episode, and the appalling way its been politically managed, just underlines how crucial decent scrutiny is for any local democracy ...... and that democratic process needs to be defended, as its obvious to a blind-man that the current crop of politicians in charge would diminish - even further - the Opposition's ability to scrutinise their decisions at the slightest opportunity

Well done to Labours excellent candidate Willie Bain, who thrashed the SNP in the by election in Glasgow North East!!

As with my own by-election, LABOUR were the outright winners, and the Lib Dems trailed far far behind, this time losing their deposit! (see graph opposite)

Labour today scored its best ever result in a Scottish by-election in living memory - seeing an increase in our share of the vote and comprehensively beating the SNP.

The newly-elected Labour MP for Glasgow North East, Willie Bain, said: "This is a great day for Labour. It is an absolute honour to stand here as the new MP for Glasgow North East and say that this is a resounding victory for Gordon Brown and Labour. "This by-election has been about many things - most of all jobs and the economy. "The people have had a chance to have their say. They have backed Gordon Brown and his efforts to secure our economic recovery.

Sunday, November 08, 2009

It was great at last to see the official opening of the new Broughton High School, where many young people from the Forth Ward atttend.

Well done to the Head Teacher, Lesley Johnston and her team for a great celebration, and to all of the pupils who took part in it! Well done

I was pleased to see one of Labours 34 schools being opened by the SFA Chief, Gordon Smith, and his confirming that state of the art, football academies will be built here at the school - another reason to celebrate.

I spoke to the Architect and was interesting to hear some of the complications along the way!

I hope this new school, will provide a state of the art teaching and learning facility for many years to come

You may have read that more cuts are on the cards for North Edinburgh.. not content with ripping £800,000 of local funding out, closing down the local community centre, proposing to close 2 local primary schools and cancelling the tram to the most needed part of the city,, there are now proposals to close West Pilton Children and Families Centre and merge into the new High School - now whilst that may be the best for some, its not for all,,, and where was the consultation?

Many parents have contacted me, and a great turnout locally showed the real concern at lack of any consultation on the proposals,, thankfully after pressure from Labour Councillors the parents are now fully involved in progressing plans, lets hope its a true consultation and not tick box excercise!

I was really pleased to have been invited to Carrie Mac;s launch of her debut solo album last week.. Carrie Macdonald, from Drylaw, recently won the Forth One to Watch award, and since then hasnt stopped on her path to success in the music industry.

I mentioned the recent report on the award of contracts for the provision of Care and Support Services just last week ...... well, since that meeting last week myself, and many of my colleagues, are completely awash with correspondence from concerned service-users who are very, very vocally expressing serious worries about just what is taking place.Obviously yet another classic example of significant changes being poorly communicated ... I sense a lot of angry people may be present at the Full Council Meeting in a couple of weeks time

Doe sthis SNP/Lib Dem adminstration care for those most vulnerable in Edinburgh??

Monday, August 31, 2009

I attended a meeting on thursday night - organised by the Royston Primary School Parent Council, attended by around 100 local people, parents, children and community reps. It was great to see the lady who was the first pupil back in 1937, supporting the local campaign, and speaking highly of the school

MArk Lazarowicz MP and Malcolm Chisholm MSP spoke out in support of the school, and how this flies in the face of the SNP Governments policy to reduce class sizes to 18 - cant be done, and wont be done, another failed promise!

I was impressed at how organised the Parent Council have been, gaining local support, support of local businesses, raising eswsential funds and showing that Royston is a not only a school, but a fantastic resource in the heart of a community.

Unfortuntely our local SNP and LIbral Democrat Councillors failed to attend the meeting, and show any support what so ever to the parents,, lets see how they vote?!?!?

The Parent Council will have the opportunity to speak at the Education, Children & Families meeting on Tuesday 8th September at 9am(surprisingly at the same time they should be putting kids into school - deliberate? - never!?)

There will be another opportunity at a council organised meeting for parents, this will take place on 23 September at Royston Primary from 7-9pm and on 30 September at Telford College from 7-9pm.

Om sure you'll all have read, or heard of the new legislation to kick in tomorrow (1st September 2009) Which will see the end to irresponsible drinks promotions and offers.

This has been a difficult time for the Licensing Board to implement, the SNP Governments Licensing act legislation is wide and varied, and some people would argue it is hitting the average joe public, rather than target those irresponsible sellers, or user's of alcohol!

We will be fair here in Edinburgh, while we do our best to implement the new rules, and hope businesses and local communities will bare with us.